Wait almost 50% of players pick easy difficulty? Really? But...

[EntityofDesire]

I just figured normal difficulty was...going to be normal go to pick, but according to their infograph 48% play on easy mode.

I totally understand (as I would) new players picking easy mode to learn the game, even returning players - but eventually isn't easy TOO easy once you learn the game?

I have no issues with what other players pick and I understand there are many new players who are naturally going to pick easy, I'm NOT saying this is a bad thing either - I'm just surprised. I figured "normal" would be the norm.

For the record i play on normal, and I have no issue with 50% playing on easy - I'm just surprised its the norm in 4X community.

[Malaficus Shaikan]

I cannot speak for others but the reason i play on easy is because brutal is just a boring grind.

The difference between difficulty is the amount of trash you have to slaughter.
And most people rather make fun less effective builds and roleplay then trying to min max against an enemy who's only strategy is: Trow more boring trash at the problem and hope the player quits from the sheer boredom.

[Ghost from warp]

If I play agaisnt PC it is to test build before using them in multiplayer session. PC is mostly annoy you and adds nothing to this purpose.

[Akazury]

AoW4 appealed to a substantial group of players that have never played a 4X game. You see this across steam and reddit with posts saying they are new, unsuccessfully tried 4Xs before and the likes. Clearly Triumph broke into a new marker and that's reflected in these stats.

[Gut]

The stats seem so much off they are difficult to trust. I wonder on what pool they have been taken.

I play on Brutal and find the game very easy, so I have added a houserule : never do the battle manually, only spell casting is manual. And even with this houserule it is far from being a difficult game.

So yeah, I doubt the meaning of these stats. More context details would be very welcome to better figure it.

[Malaficus Shaikan]

Originally posted by Gut:

The stats seem so much off they are difficult to trust. I wonder on what pool they have been taken.

I play on Brutal and find the game very easy, so I have added a houserule : never do the battle manually, only spell casting is manual. And even with this houserule it is far from being a difficult game.

So yeah, I doubt the meaning of these stats. More context details would be very welcome to better figure it.

I think it is a case of effort vs reward.
Brutal just takes longer to win.
It isnt more challanging.
Ai isnt acting smarter, the fights arent any more difficult.
There is just more of it.
And unless you are the type that enjoy's doing the same thing over and over again.
It gets boring fast.

[EntityofDesire]

see this is also my problem, I dont want a spongy AI or one that cheats, to me that means its just a brutal grind. The AI isn't playing better, its just buffed with cheats.

If thats the case I totally understand wanting easy diff, but I also dont just want to 1 shot everything and feel NO challenge - but that needs to be done by a somewhat smart AI that doesn't just turtle - i want AI to be active too.

Still 50% is A LOT.

[.Master Jiren, The Strongest]

those numbers are clearly inaccurate. for example, are people with mods taken out of the equation? What if the mods are from the workshop? Then theres probably a way to disable data tracking so some people might've done that, especially if they only play offline somehow.

i dont think these stats are ever accurate, look at the baldurs gate 3 stats when they did a similar post. total make believe. I mean i'm not suggesting the company is lying, just that whatever data they are getting isn't the full picture.

Also, wtf is "easy normal hard"? Certainly i'm not the only one that changes the sliders based on how I want to play right? custom difficulty? I set game speed to fastest for everything, so does that remove me from the census pool since i'm essentially modifyin the baseline difficulty?

questions we wont get answers to, and, it doesnt really matter anyway.
Also. Molekin will get their revenge? What does that mean? Mole rework?

[EntityofDesire]

Originally posted by .Master Jiren, The Strongest:

those numbers are clearly inaccurate. for example, are people with mods taken out of the equation?

Actually considering the MASSIVE influx of new players on the games launch and than average daily player count, I suspect a large portion of that number IS inflated by people who bought the game day/week 1 and tried it for the first time on easy.

If 50k of 80k players start the game on easy because they've never played a AoW game before...thats kinda def. effect things.

It might have been more accurate to give stats for the last 4 months/2024 only since I think it would represent the active player base.

[TirAsleen]

Very Hard A.I. has 30% higher knowledge income, its always recommended to play with at least Very Hard A.I. Rulers, you can change several other settings like world threat to normal and no handicaps, in the general brutal setting.

But, if the A.I. has no high research rates it cannot compete with any kind of player at all - it does not min/max research, like research SPIs, like a player does and does not clear efficient nodes and prioritize research structures.

I am not sure, i even saw 1 A.I. researching a T5 Tome.

But i saw the A.I. at the very hard difficulty with 4-6 T5 reapers in their armies at turn 60. Pretty sure the A.I. would not have a single selfsummoned(not rally or reward) T5 unit, in a resionable amount of turns if its not having this 30% higher knowledge income unlocking them in Tomes.

And this is why you should always play with the very hard A.I.

Here is a table of what the A.I. will get at each difficulty:

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/feature-request-no-more-ai-benefits-i-e-no-really-what-are-the-a-i-benefits.1636183/?prdxDevPosts=1

[Azunai]

I'm surprised it's only a bit over 50% (48% easy + a few more on "relaxed" which i guess is either below easy or between easy and normal?).

The average gamer never plays above "normal". It's no different for other popular strategy games. The majority of civ players (regardless of which if the many games you pick) never plays on anything higher than "prince" difficulty.

[rumborabbit]

i play on normal because i am still learning

[Estellese]

The average player likes to -feel- like they are being challenged, but never actually be challenged. You see this pattern in almost every game, where any actual challenge the game provides is generally disliked, and people push for the game balance to make the game very easy, while seeming hard or telling them it is hard.


I am not too surprised that most play on normal and below. Those difficulties will give you that power fantasy, without really giving you any chance of losing.

[TirAsleen]

Originally posted by Estellese:

The average player likes to -feel- like they are being challenged, but never actually be challenged. You see this pattern in almost every game, where any actual challenge the game provides is generally disliked, and people push for the game balance to make the game very easy, while seeming hard or telling them it is hard.


I am not too surprised that most play on normal and below. Those difficulties will give you that power fantasy, without really giving you any chance of losing.

There was a dev talk, i think it was the Firaxis team of X-Com, that discussed this problem. Normal difficulty is actually easy difficulty, but players should think its normal, where as hard is actually brutally hard, when you miss more often, aliens have more HP and so on.

The target audience for the majority of players was probably the normal difficulty players and they should have a good time playing the game.

[Aurumworks]

If they go with the complete lifetime data, then this will include the 40k peak at release, which will shift the representation away from the average player who kept playing in the year after and will also misrepresent popularity of DLC content.

Without information on the data set, we cannot properly interpret the derived statistics accurately.

[Estellese]

Originally posted by TirAsleen:

Originally posted by Estellese:

The average player likes to -feel- like they are being challenged, but never actually be challenged. You see this pattern in almost every game, where any actual challenge the game provides is generally disliked, and people push for the game balance to make the game very easy, while seeming hard or telling them it is hard.


I am not too surprised that most play on normal and below. Those difficulties will give you that power fantasy, without really giving you any chance of losing.

There was a dev talk, i think it was the Firaxis team of X-Com, that discussed this problem. Normal difficulty is actually easy difficulty, but players should think its normal, where as hard is actually brutally hard, when you miss more often, aliens have more HP and so on.

The target audience for the majority of players was probably the normal difficulty players and they should have a good time playing the game.

Yeah, it always bothers me when they are not upfront about what the difficulty actually is. Like, I get why they are doing it, but it makes it hard for me to find the right one for me.

As "hard" in many games is often still just easy mode with more steps. But "easy" and "normal" are boring to me. But I get why the devs do it.

It shocks me how many people can't see this. But eh, if it makes em happy.